


The Cost of Indifference

by AzaWhite



Category: Pride and Prejudice (1995), Pride and Prejudice (2005), Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Genre: #LetElizabethBennetSayFuck, (she doesn't in this fic but the point stands), F/M, Hunsford AU, Insults, Marriage Proposal, only in that Darcy adds one word and gets ripped (another) new one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:53:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22481362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AzaWhite/pseuds/AzaWhite
Summary: "With assumed tranquility he then replied: 'I have no wish of denying that I did everything in my power to separate my friend from yourindifferentsister, or that I rejoice in my success. Towards him I have been kinder than towards myself.'" (minor modification from Vol. II, Ch. XI).Or, the one where Mr. Darcy adds one word during his first proposal and Elizabeth loses her goddamn patience.
Relationships: Elizabeth Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy
Comments: 12
Kudos: 252





	The Cost of Indifference

“I have every reason in the world to think ill of you. No motive can excuse the unjust and ungenerous part you acted _there_. You dare not, you cannot deny, that you have been the principal, if not the only means of dividing them from each other—of exposing one to the censure of the world for caprice and instability, and the other to its derision for disappointed hopes, and involving them both in misery of the acutest kind.”

She paused, and saw with no slight indignation that he was listening with an air which proved him wholly unmoved by any feeling of remorse. He even looked at her with a smile of affected incredulity.

“Can you deny that you have done it?” she repeated.

With assumed tranquility he then replied: “I have no wish of denying that I did everything in my power to separate my friend from your **indifferent** sister, or that I rejoice in my success. Towards _him_ I have been kinder than towards myself.”

Elizabeth disdained the appearance of noticing this civil reflection, but its meaning did not escape, nor was it likely to conciliate her.

**[…]**

“You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the mode of your declaration affected me in any other way, than as it spared me the concern which I might have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner.”

She saw him start at this, but he said nothing, and she continued:

“You could not have made the offer of your hand in any possible way that would have tempted me to accept it.”

Again his astonishment was obvious; and he looked at her with an expression of mingled incredulity and mortification. She went on:

“From the very beginning—from the first moment, I may almost say—of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain for the feelings of others, were such as to form the groundwork of disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed upon to marry.”

“You have said quite enough, madam **—”**

Elizabeth would have let him speak his piece had not a terrible epiphany struck her; instead she allowed her temper to go against her better breeding and interrupted him. “I am not finished. Sir.”

He cut off abruptly and looked at her with no small amount of astonishment. She felt colour rising to her cheeks at her own rudeness, but continued nevertheless.

“You believed Jane indifferent? Her affection was plain to see; yet you dared encourage Mr. Bingley to quit Netherfield and subsequently her?”

Mr. Darcy frowned deeply and spoke with affected serenity. “I saw no evidence of particular attachment on her part. Her manners are all that is genteel but lacked any symptom of peculiar regard towards Bingley. She showed no discernable partiality towards my friend, no more that she did any other of her acquaintances. I advised Bingley as I saw fit.”

At this Elizabeth could not help but let out a small chuckle that to her own ears sounded more hysterical than her intended wry. “No evidence of particular attachment? She is shy and well-mannered. Would you have preferred she flattered and fawned over your friend? Should she have abandoned all sense of good breeding and propriety to make her affections known?”

Again Mr. Darcy coloured but remained silent. Elizabeth took this as sufficient encouragement to continue. “Had she behaved in such a manner, surely you would have again discouraged Mr. Bingley from her, and in that case I should be less offended; yet you cannot deny she acted with all forms of good manners.” Elizabeth looked him in the eyes, emboldened by her sense of justice. “I wonder then, Mr. Darcy, at your seeing encouragement from me.”

He started and appeared to restrain himself from stepping closer. “You have given me ample reason to believe you would accept my suit—”

“What reason?” Elizabeth felt her anger rise with her every breath. “That I have taken upon every opportunity to leave your company? That when in it I have needled you and riled your anger? That I am the second of five children, all daughters, with an estate entailed upon the cousin whose home we are standing in?”

Mr. Darcy stood so still Elizabeth felt he could have turned to a statue there in the sitting room. At length, he spoke haltingly and with obvious restraint. “I will not deny—and indeed, your own mother has made clear—that it would be an advantageous match for either you or your sister—”

“And yet I have rejected you soundly!” Elizabeth cried, at once both horrified at her incivility and unable to restrain herself. “For I can assure you, both Jane and I have sworn as children that we should never marry unless, at the very least, mutual respect could be found between ourselves and our future husbands. I will grant, my mother cannot be trusted to honor the wishes of her daughters in this respect; I would hardly be surprised at strangers acknowledging her matchmaking maneuvers as nothing short of mercenary. However, I should remind you, sir, that she has made no attempt, since being acquainted with your general disagreeable disposition, to throw her daughters in your path. Even your status cannot overcome your insulting her society and daughter.”

Here she took a deep breath, and, having considered herself completely lost to the rules of good breeding, spoke again with the coldest tone she could muster. “I shall thank you to never again insinuate that Jane is mercenary. Good day, sir.”

At this she again went against her breeding and pointedly directed Mr. Darcy toward the door. He, with colour high in his cheeks, dumbly exited the house and shut the door with a small click.

.

.

.

 **[Mr. Bingley]** was received by Mrs. Bennet with a degree of civility which made her two daughters ashamed, especially when contrasted with the cold and ceremonious politeness of her curtsey and address to **[Mr. Darcy]**.

Darcy could not imagine a more uncomfortable situation. Here he was, sitting in the Bennet’s drawing room, surrounded by the house’s women. If Eli—Miss Elizabeth had not been sure to be in attendance, he would never have come. Bingley, on the other hand, had overcome his initial apprehension and chatted easily with the ladies. Darcy noticed his friend spoke as exclusively to Miss Bennet as he could; the lady returned his conversation with a serene countenance, though now he was looking for it, Darcy saw a kind of tremor behind her words.

Miss Elizabeth said uncharacteristically little, though she inquired politely after Darcy’s sister and expressed her wishes for Georgiana’s good health. Darcy noticed with no small degree of gratification that her eyes seemed to land upon himself frequently.

Mrs. Bennet was exactly as he remembered her from the previous autumn. Her loud and vulgar speech made no secret of her hope that Bingley had returned to court her eldest daughter. She paid Darcy himself every aspect of civility, but he noticed with a mix of dawning relief and horror that she spent much more of her effort on Bingley. Only when it bordered on rude to ignore Darcy did she turn to him to pose a question or direct a comment. He realized with a sudden astonishment and chagrin that Eliz—Miss Elizabeth had been correct in her assessment of her mother’s opinion of him. What a thing, to be disliked because of his behavior and not simpered at because of his wealth!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Please leave kudos and/or a comment if you enjoyed!


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